Volk's Jewelry & Loans, Bill Taylor the Mad Hatter and Downtown Records aren't sure where or whether they'll move after their leases expire at the end of this month, owners said. The Maron family, which owns the building at Prospect Avenue and East Fourth Street, has signed a lease with Red the Steakhouse, a restaurant that better fits in with the trend of the area's development.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- In the early 1900s, pawnbrokers, jewelers and hat shops populated the intersection of East Fourth Street and Prospect Avenue in downtown Cleveland.

Now Volk's Jewelry & Loans, a century-old business that weathered the city's growth and decline, will leave 417 Prospect Ave. -- making way for a high-end steakhouse to fill the small-two story building. Last week, Volk's and two neighboring businesses received notice that their leases will end this month. They will be replaced by Red the Steakhouse, a nationally known restaurant with locations in Beachwood, Miami and Boca Raton, Fla.

The tenant switch, a block from Cleveland's new casino, shows how revival is spreading from East Fourth onto surrounding streets. And it illustrates a swap occurring in parts of downtown, as old buildings are remade for housing, restaurants and hotels - and some other uses fall out of favor.

View full sizeCOURTESY OF PLAIN DEALER HISTORICAL PHOTOGRAPHIC COLLECTIONNortheast corner of Prospect Avenue and East Fourth Street circa 1956. Volk's Jewelry & Loans can be seen on the lower right. The business has occupied that space for 113 years, since 1899.

The Maron family, which turned East Fourth into a neighborhood and dining destination, bought the 10,000-square-foot Volk's building for $325,000 in late 2010. At the time, it was clear change was in the offing. The second floor of the building had been vacant for years, and the ground-floor retailers were put on month-to-month leases. Still, the three tenants, including Bill Taylor the Mad Hatter and Downtown Records, were surprised July 31, when they were asked to move out within 30 days.

Burt Kay, co-owner of Volk's, said he and business partner John Borstein expected more time, closer to six months, to find a new home if the Marons decided to remake the building. Now they don't know where -- or whether -- they'll move, and they're trying to sell of all their merchandise and notify customers with outstanding loans.

Red the Steakhouse could open by late spring 2013. Developer Ari Maron and Brad Friedlander, president and chief executive officer of Beachwood's Red Restaurant Group, completed a lease deal Tuesday. With roughly 140 seats, plus party rooms and meeting space, the downtown steakhouse will be larger than its suburban cousin. It will employ at least 80 people and eventually could be open for lunch, Friedlander said.

"It seems to be that the biggest problem with downtown is that there is not one area that's been fully developed," said the restaurateur, who started his career washing dishes at his father's former downtown Cleveland eateries. "It seems like this is the first time that one area has really been developed with focus and branched out from. . . Being brought up downtown most of my life, I never thought I would see a resurgence like I am right now.

"I love Cleveland," he added. "I think it's the greatest city in the country, and I want to be down there to support it."

Maron said he and Friedlander have talked about a downtown restaurant for several years. May's debut of the Horseshoe Casino Cleveland, and next year's opening of a new convention center and medical mart, made the timing right.

"The development plan for the East Fourth Street neighborhood was to get the very best operators to co-locate in one neighborhood," Maron said. "Brad was among that group. He's the best of the best. So it's a perfect fit."

As far as the existing tenants go, Maron said: "We've been, over time, letting them know that the development plans for the neighborhood would lead to something else in the future. So they knew that was coming."

The Volk family opened their jewelry store on Prospect in 1899. Borstein's father and Kay, who previously owned a downtown jewelry store, bought Volk's in the early 1960s. The business, profitable for at least 50 years, became a pawnshop three decades ago. Customers are disappointed about the move, Kay said, because many of them depend on the store for help during hard times.

"We've been a bank, so to speak, a lender of last resort for a lot of our customers," he said, adding that the bulk of the store's business is built on relationships.

Cassandra Zolis, owner of the neighboring Mad Hatter, also is unsure about where to move or whether to close her business. The hat shop has been downtown, in various locations, since 1921. Close friend and customer Creasie Hunter said that losing the Mad Hatter will be a loss for the neighborhood. Hunter often spends her lunch break in the shop, which she described as having a barbershop atmosphere -- where people talk, vent and support one another.

Though empty storefronts are plentiful downtown, the merchants could be limited if they try to move. The cost of rent and remaking retail space can be a challenge for small stores, said Tom Yablonsky, executive director of the Historic Gateway Neighborhood Corp.

Volk's, he said, is a "remnant of an earlier era," when Prospect once boasted a bustling shopping scene, second only to that of Euclid Avenue.

Now restaurants and retailers are trickling back into downtown, as pockets of renewal start to stretch toward one another. In a city keen on historic preservation, many of the buildings look the same. But the storefronts, and the names on the signs, are quite different than they were 100 years ago.

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